I now self-identify as a plumber

I’m sure I’m not alone in doing some minor “fix” which exponentially explodes into a full-blown project. That recently happened to me … AGAIN! The toilet in the half bath wasn’t doing a good job of flushing. It appeared that the fill valve was lower than it should be to allow the tank to fill with sufficient water. Several years ago my daughter had installed a Korky Quiet Fill in this toilet. It worked very well until recently. I suspected it had “slipped down”.

I turned off the water supply below the toilet then unscrewed the two attachments at the base of the tank. Then I pulled out the Korky unit and tried to extend the tube. It had ratchets that lock the tube in place once the right height is determined. Well as I was working with the height, the ratchets locked in place and I couldn’t get them to unlock.

I checked YouTube to see if there were any instruction videos. There are MANY! I picked this one from Korky itself. Notice that this video is 1.52 minutes long. In it the gal does the complete installation. Trust me … it takes longer than that! 🙂

The main thing I noticed from the video was that the ratchets on my old unit were different. I suspected there was a problem with the old design, so Korky revised the design. So off to Home Depot (my fav store) to buy a new unit. I put the new unit in with no problem being careful to position the height as instructed.

Then I reattached the solid chrome connector to the tank and the faucet bar. Once done, I turned the faucet back on. Water dripped from the tank and from the nut near the faucet knob. @#$%^&*!!! I won’t go thru the multiple steps I tried to fix the drips but let’s just say the toilet was out of commission for a few days.

Back to Home Depot where a terrific guy told me to use a flexible connector then throw the old solid one away. (The flexible connector has better washer system in it.)Voila! It worked great, easy to install AND it worked. No leaks!

I was so confident in my skills(?) that I bought another Korky and flexible extender for another toilet. Took me only 30 minutes this time and NO LEAKS! The extender I bought is a little longer than needed but I was afraid to buy too short cause I didn’t want to have to make another trip. I’m so proud of me!

NOTE: If any plumbers read this, you’re worth every penny! While I saved money on this project, there are a couple projects yet to do that I will need to hire a plumber because they’re beyond my ability. So there’s that!🙂